WORD ORDER

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 433.

WORD ORDER is the order of words. The words in an English sentence are arranged in a certain order, which is fixed for every type of the sentence, and is therefore meaningful. Word order fulfils several functions – grammatical, emphatic and linking. The main function of word order in English is to express grammatical relations and determine the grammatical status of a word by fixing its position. Thus, word order in English is comparatively fixed, unlike in some other languages.

1. THE POSITION OF OBJECTS

Objects normally follow the verbs, adjectives or nouns they are objects to. If a verb is followed by two objects (indirect and direct) the following patterns are possible:

Send the book to John. – Send John the book.

Send the book to him. – Send him he book.

Send it to him. – (only in BrE) Send him it.

Send it him.

Putting an indirect object before a direct object and deletion of the preposition to is called Dative Movement Transformation. No deletion of the preposition to is possible after a number of verbs: to add, to announce, to ascribe, to attribute, to communicate, to contribute, to declare, to dedicate, to deliver, to describe, to devote, to dictate, to disclose, to explain, to interpret, to introduce, to mention, to open, to point out, to repeat, to reply, to say, to submit, to suggest, to trust, to entrust,etc.

The President has communicated tothe Prime Minister what he wanted to communicate tohim.

Can you explain tome what all this means?

In a few cases AmE usage is different from BrE usage: e.g. to recommend.

BrE: I recommended him the book.

AmE: I recommended to him the book.

A direct object can acquire some prominence when it is separated from the predicate by some secondary part of the sentence – generally an adverbial modifier or a prepositional indirect object. It is called the back position of the object (postponement):

I had at heart a strange and anxious thought. (Ch.Brontë)

She produced from her pocket a most housewifely bunch of keys. (Ch.Brontë)

He made clear his strong oppositionto changing the voting system.

The front position of the object (object fronting) (at the beginning of the sentence) serves the purpose of emphasis:

A fearful voyage I had with such a monster in the vessel. (Ch.Brontë)

Talent Mr Micawber has, capital Mr Micawber has not. (Ch.Dickens)

Great party that was!

Oh, what a memory I have!

2. THE POSITION OF ATTRIBUTES

The usual place of the attribute expressed by an adjective, noun, pronoun, or participle is before the word it modifies.

If a noun is modified by a number of attributes their order can be fixed depending on their meaning:

1. Determiners (articles or pronouns: my, this, every, each)

2. Ordinal numerals (first, 974^th)

3. Cardinal numerals (two, 544,625)

4. Adjectives denoting:

a) opinion (horrible, bad, ugly, fearful)

b) size (tremendous, tiny, microscopic)

c) shape (round, heptagonal, quadrilateral)

d) age (young)

e) colour (mauve, yellow)

f) origin or nationality (Zimbabwean, Honduran, Quebecois)

g) material (wooden)

5. Nouns or gerunds in the function of the attribute.

She has bought three horrible huge high modern orange Dutch tarpaulin walking shoes and doesn't know what to do with them.

NOTE: The adjective little often corresponds to the Russian diminutive suffix and in this case is placed immediately before the noun.

There are some instances when attributes follow the nouns they modify, i.e. are used in post-position.

1. Most adjectives in –able and –ible are generally placed after the nouns, especially when the noun is preceded by the adjective only or an adjective in the superlative degree: E.g. the only person visible, with all the solemnity possible, the most interesting thing imaginable, sufferings unspeakable.

2. Attributes are postmodifying when expressed by extended phrases or complexes:

He found himself in a situation difficult from his point of view.

3. Two or more adjectives are often placed after the word modified for the sake of emphasis. When we say: Mary has many green and yellow pencils, we take for granted that the quality denoted by the adjectives belongs to the noun. By placing the adjectives in post-position: Mary has many pencils,green and yellow, we want to communicate something new about the head noun in the sentence itself. It is similar in meaning to: Mary has many pencils; these pencils are green and yellow.

It was a summer night, warm and starlit.

4. Postmodifying attributes are found in traditional phrases. mostly borrowed from French or Latin:

The abbreviation AAstands for the name of the organizationAlcoholics Anonymous.

5. Some adjectives can only be used in post-position: galore, designate, awake, alive, afraid, etc.

There have been accidents galore this week.

6. Some adjectives change their meanings depending on the position they are in:

a) a properanswer – “подобающий ответ”

architecture proper –“собственно архитектура”

b) a present task – “данная задача”

the people present – “присутствующие люди”

с) the concernedstudents – “обеспокоенные студенты”

the students concerned – “студенты, которых это касается”

d) an involvedsolution – “запутанное решение”

the people involved – “люди, которые были вовлечены”

e) an adoptedchild – “усыновлённый ребёнок”

the decision adopted– “принятое решение”

7. Participles in the function of the Attribute cannot always be used before nouns. We can say a broken window, but it is not normal usage to say a climbing man, and it is not possible to say the discussed problem.

When we put a participle before a noun, it usually expresses some more permanent characteristic. If we talk about a broken window, we may just be thinking of the way the window looks and we are not thinking of the action. On the other hand, if we talk about a man climbing a rock, or the window broken last night, we are thinking more of the actions.

Failure is a job unfinished.

8. The stylistic device of putting an attribute after the noun is called ANASTROPHE (rhyming with catastrophe):

Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time

future, and time futurecontained in time past. (Eliot)

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small.

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.

A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,

Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty. (Shakespeare)

3. THE POSITION OF ADVERBIAL MODIFIERS

There are three normal positions for adverbs: mid-position (He suddenly drove off.), end-position (He drove off suddenly) and initial position (Suddenly he drove off.)

1. Adverbs of indefinite time, frequency and degree (often, seldom. sometimes, always, rarely, usually, quite, almost, fully, etc.), the determiners (all, each, both) usually stand before the verb, but go after am, are, is, was, were:

I often go to the circus, but I never go to the university.

John suddenlyran away.

Helen is oftenlate.

I amneverhappy at home.

When the predicate consists of several parts, the most common position of the adverb is after the first auxiliary verb:

You must alwaysbe on time?

You should definitelyhave been working this morning.

This lesson will never be finished.

NOTE: In emphatic sentences, many adverbs are put before the first auxiliary verb (and before am, are, is, was, were)

You should always be polite. – I alwaysam polite.

You really will get a surprise one day.

He said he would never tell them, and he never has told them.

2. In negative sentences, some adverbs come before not, and others after, depending on the meaning. Compare:

I certainly do not agree.

I do not oftenhave headaches.

Both positions are possible with some adverbs, often with a difference of meaning. Compare:

I don'treallythink so.

I reallydon't think so.

When adverbs come before not, they may also come before the first auxiliary verb; they always come before do.

I probably will not be there. (or: I will probablynot be there.)

He probablydoes not know. (but not: *He does probably not know.)

3. The order of adverbs in end-position depends partly on questions of rhythm and emphasis. In general, we put adverbs of place before adverbs of time:

The students came to the university at four o'clock in the morning.

4. Still, yet and already

The word still is usually put in mid-position. It is used to talk about the continuation of a situation or action that started in the past, especially when we are expecting it to stop some time soon, or we are surprised that it has not stopped:

Hell! It's still raining!

The word yet is usually put in end-position. It is used to talk about things that are expected to happen, and is only used in questions and negative sentences. If we ask about the expected event, we say: Has it happened yet? This question asks for information. If we say: Has it already happened?, the answer ‘yes' is expected. It has probably happened. This question means: It has happened, I suppose?

Questions with already are often not real questions, but expressions of surprise. Compare:

Is the lesson over yet?

Is the lesson over already? That's quick!

In a more formal style, yet can be put immediately afternot.

The bananas are not yet ripe.

Still can be used in negative and interrogative sentences but its meaning is different from that of yet. Compare:

She hasn't written to me yet. (But I expect she will soon.)

She still hasn't written to me. (She would have written before.)

NOTE: One should bear in mind that the words yet and still may have other meanings.

5. Any more, any longer, no longer

Any more and any longer go at the end of the sentence:

I don't work here any longer.

I don't go to university any more.

No longer is used in mid-position:

I no longereat mulligatawny.

NOTE: No more in Modern English is not used in this way to talk about time, but it can be used to talk about quantity or degree:

There is no more beer.

Einstein is no more a genius than I am.

6. The word enough comes after adverbs and adjectives:

We know trigonometry well enough.

Today's weather is not bad enough.

But it precedes nouns:

Do you think you have enough spaghetti?

Enough of is used before articles, possessive, demonstrative and personal pronouns:

I've had enough of this nonsense.

We didn't see enough ofthem.

When enough is used with an adjective and a noun, two positions are possible. The word order depends on whether enough refers to the adjective or the noun. Compare:

I haven't got big enough nails to mend the table. (refers to the adjective)

I haven't got enough big nails to mend the table. (refers to the noun)

That is enough about the word enough.